The mission of ATX Tactics is to provide respectful, safe, and high quality training for our fellow Austinites. We’re martial arts practitioners and teachers who became obsessed with creating a self defense gym that is personal, approachable, and reality-based.

There are a few things we feel very strongly about.

First, we believe self defense is a human right. Everyone deserves to feel safe, empowered, confident, and like they are allowed to take up space in a world that at times wants to make them feel small. Our backgrounds can make coming to new things — especially things like self defense that might seem scary if you’ve never done them before — more difficult. We wanted to create a training environment and methodology that is incredibly approachable while still respecting the realities of violence and self defense conflicts, so that more humans can tap into this human right.

The second thing to know about us: we love martial arts. A whole lot. If you’ve spent any time around us, you’ll figure it out pretty quickly. For our owners and coaches, they have been life-changing. There are so many concepts that are not only fun to practice, they’re also viable and essential for self defense.

But individually, they are only part of the picture. The goals are different — in sports martial arts, you don’t have to consider managing third parties (protecting, defending yourself from them, or communicating), weapons aren’t going to be in play, ethics and legality aren’t an issue because both combatants are in the same size, skill, and age range and have consented to the rules, and while escaping and exiting a self defense situation are ideal, running out of the ring would make for a pretty boring MMA fight.

Can you defend yourself with other martial arts? Absolutely! Will you train things that sometimes don’t relate? Also yes. Our goal is to take the fundamental fighting concepts from these amazing practices and train them specifically as they relate to self defense. And if we do our job right, you’ll fall in love with them the same way we have and go pursue them more fully in their respective contexts.

The last thing to know about us: we believe simple is safe. When stress is involved, you need something that is simple, easy to repeat, and effective. There is no one size fits all solution, and no magic trick that will thwart every problem. This is why we focus more on concepts rather than techniques — they’re much easier to replicate and follow when things get unpredictable, like a lighthouse in a storm. We also believe we have an ethical obligation to make sure these concepts work for you and your body.

All of these values help us and you together form your own self defense tactics and strategy. That’s what makes ATX Tactics personal defense.

We hope you’ll join us on the mat.